The Most Horrible Fanfiction Ever Penned

The Enlistment Office

Would you like to write a guest riff for us? Here’s some information to help you go about doing just that. Lyle handles all of the guest submissions and if you follow these guidelines, she’ll post your riff.

Submitting a Riff

Email your riff to literarytravesty@gmail.com

Put in your subject line:

the name of the fic you are riffing

the words “guest riff.”

This will get Lyle’s attention so she knows how to organize her inbox properly.

At the top of your email, include:

the name you wish to go by for your riff

The url to the original fic (if it’s a reposting of the fic, that’s cool, too. We just need a url so any curious patrons can read the fic for themselves)

You may, if you so wish, fill this out and put it at the beginning of your riff (it’s okay if you don’t; Lyle will make one for you):Title: Author: Media:Topic:Genre:URL: Critiqued by

Any potential trigger warnings in your riff (Lyle was surprised by this once and doesn’t want to have surprise!mental-abuse happen again). If the fic is incredibly violent or contains explicit sexual content, or contains rape/abuse of any sort/anything that could be a potential trigger, please put it at the top of the riff. We’re okay with those types of fics being featured, we just need to have a warning in case any patrons or Librarians are triggerable. Thanks!

The riff itself:

Preferred formats include word .doc, .docx, and Google Docs

If you use Google Docs, make sure to allow literarytravesty editing/viewing rights so Lyle can snag the riff off of Docs.

If you cannot use any of those programs to write your riff, you may place the riff directly into the body of the email, although you might make Lyle cry.

Pictures, videos, gifs, and sound bytes are all welcomed in your riffs

Please include urls for all media you use just in case something goes funky and Lyle needs to snag it from the source.

While we are pretty much rated R, we are not rated X. If you have explicit material you wish to include, please use the url and it will be linked in the riff instead of displayed visually. If the Librarians deem the image too explicit, it will not be used and you’ll need to find another image to replace it.

Language is not censored. We allow swearing and name calling and cartoon-levels of violence. But we will not tolerate bigotry in our riffs in any way, shape, or form. Use of such things as racial/cultural/sexual orientation/etc slurs will result in you being utterly unwelcome in these parts.

Try to keep your riff under 20 pages, using 12 point Times New Roman font, 1″ margins. You don’t really have to format your riff like that, but that’s a guideline in case you need it. More than that and you might be asked to break it into more than one riff.

Spell check and do your best on grammar. Lyle will often proof read as she formats but can miss things, too. If she has any questions on if a misspelling was purposeful, she will contact you before making any fixes.

Italics, boldface, underlining, striking out words, highlighting, changing the color of your text, and changing text size are all allowed.

If using Word or Google, just do these things yourself in the document.

If placing it directly into the email, use tags to accomplish these things.

If you need help with tags, just email literarytravesty@gmail.com. We can help you figure out what to use for what formatting

Make sure you indicate what is quoted from the fic.

Blockquote tags before and after quoted text work best

Another good option is to change the quoted text’s color

A third method used in the past has been to place *** or —- between your writing and the quoted text.

Lyle posts the riffs via a method she feels is fair to all guests, a mix of “first come, first served” and “Let’s spice it up a bit and keep things variable.” She will try to get back to you as soon as possible to let you know she has received your email. When she knows what day your riff will go up, she will let you know.

In the event that we are inundated with submissions, two guests might share an upload day.

We reserve the right to say “No” to your riff. We will tell you why and you will never merely not hear from Lyle.

If you have not heard from her within a week of submitting your riff, feel free to send her a reminder email and/or post in the comment section of this page letting her know you sent something. If she doesn’t see it, it was eaten by the internet gnomes. Try again.